Bunch of bare footed dirty unkempt spoiled brats complaining about conforming while all the while looking and acting like cookie cutter clones of each other and enjoying the benefits that all the hard working Americans squares earned for them

The decade had begun on a high note. Initially, Americans accepted the Vietnam War as a larger struggle against communism. Optimism grew as Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-60s. A counter-culture movement was also taking root. Young people, in particular, were denouncing the traditions and norms of the establishment. For this affluent and educated set, drugs and music, rather than violence, would change the world.

Well, I lived it, and I don't want to go back. I graduated from high school in 1966. The years prior to my graduation were happy years...sort of like Animal House times. The years AFTER my graduation (1967-1970) were nothing but anger and fear.

I was an Air Force wife in those years...my son was born in 1968. Constant complaining, unhappiness, anger, rage, paranoia...no thanks! I have NO fond memories of those years, and that was when I became disenchanted with the media.

If you want to get a good idea of the 60's (and the early 70's), rent Forrest Gump. It was not a time that anyone should recall with fondness.

It has been my opinion for many years that the modern conservitive movement is a reaction to the 60's. I was young then but I missed most of the "Fun" because I was occupied with other things, the Army for one.

To answer your question, NO, it wasn't that way at all. Not where I was, anyway. People opposedthe war because of the draft, and the bottom line is that people didn't want to get killed. All of this talk about "principled" resistance is hogwash. Boomers who pretend that they weren't afraid of getting killed are simply re-writing history. I sat in on too many dorm conversations to believe anything else.

The people who believed music would change the world were dopers who are by now institutionalized or dead. Those of us who were in the real world were scrambling to make lives while the entire country was torn apart by the demonstrations and later Watergate.

I will speak out whenever I hear clueless types talk about how wonderful the 60's were. ONLY the early 60's...the rest was crap.

I was just a little kid during the sixties. I remember going past the local cinema one afternoon and asking Mom what Jesus Christ Superstar was. She replied it was just a bunch of dirty hippies doing some play.

21
posted on 09/29/2005 6:42:39 PM PDT
by reagan_fanatic
(Darwinism is a belief in the meaninglessness of existence - R. Kirk)

Uh, yeah! A lot of Americans backed our troops and the civil rights movements, but somehow the anti-establishment types captured the imagination of the media and took over the universities. Any behavior was coddled and approved -- the more despicable the better. Now the same folks (with haircuts) RUN the media and the universities.

I see hippies on campus from time to time, but for the most part they are an ostracized sub culture while the rest of the students shower regularly and appear to make themselve presentable. I ask my parents in awe how their generation could actually think those people were the "COOL KIDS"?

It was my generation, and I am happy to say that not all of us became wacko leftist hippy freaks. I did not, nor did any of my friends. Some that did, obviously burned their brains out on drugs and haven't recovered yet. Some of them have been President.

One thing maybe all of us can agree on: These times right now are NOT that fun to live in, they are getting worse and have been since the 90s. (I'm 24, but can remember plenty of the 80s and I think the 80s were more enjoyable) I don't mean fun in ways like getting drunk, drugs etc. either.

Ahhh, now THATS the kind of kids I loved. to hell with what the protestors were doing. You were doing what was right because you loved your parents and they loved you. thanks Mom and Dad is right. God bless you all. I hated the sixties except when our kids were born in 61 and 63. That's the best thing in my life that came out of the 60's as I am sure other paretns feel the same.

31
posted on 09/29/2005 6:46:08 PM PDT
by cubreporter
(I trust Rush. He has done more for our country than anyone will ever know. He's a man of honor.)

I agree with almost all of what you said (I'm a little younger, but we're contemporaries).

Where I take exception is the "anger and fear" comment.

I think of the 60's as a time of rapid change and technological modernization, surfing, great network television (particularly "Green Acres" :), Elvis, Motown and the Beatles, cool cars and landing a man on the moon.

It was exciting; not all negative.

You often hear "if you remember the 60's, you weren't there."

Well, I was there...and I remember it clearly and fondly.

And, unlike most of my buddies, Ripple was the most illicit substance I consumed (maybe that's why I remember).

The people who believed music would change the world were dopers who are by now institutionalized or dead. Those of us who were in the real world were scrambling to make lives while the entire country was torn apart by the demonstrations and later Watergate.

I think those making real lives for themselves outweigh those who cant or wont... that is the real difference from the 60's.

The only thing that was any good was the music. The rest of the "culture" was garbage. A lot of "principled" young men whose real and guiding principle was saving themselves from the draft. And annoying young women who thought they knew more than anyone else and were so much better than their elders who had worked their tails off to give them a life of leisure. This was not "my generation" just a bunch of people who were born in the same period of time; that's all I and millions of others share with them, Thank God.

I remember going past the local cinema one afternoon and asking Mom what Jesus Christ Superstar was. She replied it was just a bunch of dirty hippies doing some play.

The large youth group in the liberal church of my childhood did a touring performance of JCSS. I never heard the Gospel, nor read my Bible in my 2 year association with that particular segment of organized r-e-l-i-g-i-o-n.

You got it. A hateful, vengeful, ugly, nasty scar on our country. A lot of trouble makers wondering around like the world owed them a living. they hated their parents but still managbed to live at home and take advantage of the love their parents still had for them. Hypocrites all. I'm like you. Nothing in that time is worth anything.

45
posted on 09/29/2005 6:51:41 PM PDT
by cubreporter
(I trust Rush. He has done more for our country than anyone will ever know. He's a man of honor.)

The 60s were were mild compared to what we have today with tens of thousand of violent organized gang member, many here illegally. In the 60s no one ever heard of "drive-by shootings that now occur multiple times daily in this country, along with the regular work place, and school massacres. In the 60s we didn't have millions pouring into our country illegally, bringing in tons of drugs, overwhelming our schools and hospitals, all while our government looked the other way...And now fanatic religious freaks that want to murder us all.

I could go on.

No, compared to what we have today, I'd take the 60s any day!

46
posted on 09/29/2005 6:53:20 PM PDT
by Black Tooth
(The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.)

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